Accepting Mobile Payments

In recent years technology has moved to a stage where payments have become mobile and not relying on a single point of payment. When was the last time you went to McDonald's and paid using a card, or did you use Apple or Android pay for example? This is an on-going trend that is likely to continue as more and more of us rely on carrying just our phone, with even the DVLA looking into mobile driving licences.

Understandably, you don't want your business to miss out. If people are using their phones to pay, why should you wait? It may be too late to wait until customers start asking for it, so it may be a good time to start investigating the opportunity now.

My business is only small - is it worth it?

Some may argue that the option of offering mobile payments may be too expensive, both time and money wise, but it could potentially cover the costs quickly. Paym(pronounced - Pay 'em) for example, is a service that allows you to pay anyone with a mobile number (providing it's linked to their bank account). No need for sort codes, or account numbers - just a mobile number.

Paym recently released some statistics covering the last 6 months of 2015, and they demonstrate the power of accepting mobile payments:

1.46m payments sent in the last 6 months of 2015

That's equal to £76.2m worth of transactions

Many users are finding it easier to accept payment

So where do you start? At the time of writing, 5 banks in the UK allow businesses to set up Paym (see an up-to-date list here). These banks allow you to set up multiple mobile numbers against a bank account. If you're a one person team, then set it up for your own business mobile number. If you have multiple sales agents, then set them all up with their own business mobile numbers (if you can). The best part is - it's free to use.

Apple and Android Pay

It was only last week that Android Pay launched in the UK, so that in itself is relatively new, but Apple Pay has been around since mid-2015. Android is seen to have a bigger market than Apple given the number of devices that use the Android operating system. So as long as the phone has NFC functionality, then it should work with a contactless card machine.

There are a number of places you can source these - companies such as PayPal offer the PayPal Here, or companies like World Pay offer their solutions too. You may find that your telecoms company even offer card machines, and you may qualify for discounts with them.

As with most things - do your research

Further Reading

Mobile payments are growing, and to many businesses, particularly those who are customer facing, should try and jump on the bandwagon now they have a chance. Here are some resources that will help with further information: